We need to think. This is what's missing from us, energetically speaking... We can't out-fight them, but we can out-think them. - John Trudell

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Life in marvelous times.

I have been edgy this fall, after a
summer of drought and polar ice melting and politicians talking in empty
platitudes about job growth. As if we can grow jobs without clean
water, clean air and life in balance. You can't grow jobs let alone
food without an Earth that can sustain us. I don’t want to make any more lists of
the ways it is done, the killing of bodies, hearts, mountains, streams.
It all swirls, it is all real, all connected. Greed, ignorance and
hatred. The world is complex and fragile and we need to bring our best
selves to all we do. I’m not afraid of my anger or despair but it needs to be
connected to my love.

My worry for the world has been waking me in the depth of night. That worry which usually manifests as worry for children: both the small circle of children that are my very personal heartbeat and for all the circles of beloved children all over the world. An hour or so before dawn I lay in bed listening to the wind and everything swirled in my head and my heart beat fast and I felt panic and terror wash over me in sickening waves from the belly through my chest to clamp around my brain. I tried to breathe deeply and find a place of power in myself not just distraction or rationalizations but something to strengthen me.

I thought of Snake in the sun, yellow and black, her small beautiful head raised above fall leaves. I sat across the path from her in a timeless experience as she bathed in the sunlight that fell in small pools among gold and red leaves. The simple experience of sitting with snake, the softness and quietness with which that moment both required of me and gave to me has remained. It washes over me in times of stress and both gentles and strengthens me.

Here we go into the election (finally!) I think Obama will win. It will be close and voter suppression looms large in my mind. But hopefully on Tuesday we will reelect Obama and then for anything to come of four more years he must be pushed from an empowered, visionary and courageous people’s movement. The amount of money and time spent just to hold on to this moderate democrat as well as working to defeat ridiculous amendments to make voting harder or marriage something only available to some people feels maddening but necessary. I have my eyes open, I am not in love with the idea that a president can save us. I am in love with the idea that we can save ourselves, save each other. And we do, all the time! No matter who wins we need new/ancient ways of thinking. We need strategies and both immediate action and a long term vision to meet the changing times.

So hell yes I am voting but it is what we do after the election that matters most. We are here at this time as the Earth is in great transition and we are Earth and we are changing. What an honor, what a responsibility, what a possibility! There have been many turning points and I think we stand on the edge of one now. John Trudell assures us, "We are in the right place at the right time." This song by the amazing Yasiin Bey (who used to go by Mos Def) carries me forward.

It's scary like hell, but there's no doubt

we can't be alive in no time but... NOW!

...All over the world, you can feel it

All over the world, feel it

Spirits rise everywhere

It's just a sure shot to the heart

It's just a sure shot in the dark

It's just another place in the stars

Wonders on every side, life in marvelous times

Life in marvelous times...now, always.

Now more than ever we must walk with the complexity of our situation. The politics, the strategy, the facts and figures but also the spirit realities, the joy and love for people and the knowledge that snakes elegant head rising above the leaves is also power, is also happening, is also now. Always.